"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Press Freedom: Believing the government can be dangerous to your freedom

"The
Cuban media in its various formats should play a decisive role in the pursuit
of this goal with clarifications and objective, continuous and critical reports
on the progress of the updating of the Economic Model ...Written materials and television and radio programs should be
produced that catch the attention of the audience with their content and
style while encouraging public debate."

Most Cubans, journalists among them, are completely jaded and cynical about such calls by the dictatorship for reform and wisely so based on the past 54 years of Cuban history. Sadly, on occasion someone actually believes what the Cuban government is peddling and goes out on a limb.

The latest victim is José Antonio Torres, a writer for the official publication Granma, who foolishly bought into Raul Castro's previous calls for quality journalism and wrote stories "about the mismanagement of an aqueduct project in
Santiago de Cuba and the installation of fiber-optic cable between
Venezuela and Cuba. Torres’s 5,000-word article on the mismanagement of
the aqueduct project, published in July 2010, was reportedly praised by
President Raúl Castro, who wrote in Granma that 'this is the
spirit that should characterize the (Communist) Party press:
transparent, critical, and self-critical,'" reported Pen America and went on to describe the price paid by Antonio Torres for his professionalism:

"Three months later Torres was arrested, and in
mid-June 2012, following a closed trial, he was convicted of espionage
and sentenced to 14 years in prison and the withdrawal of his university
degree in journalism."

Learning about the circumstances surrounding this case brought back memories of Sacha Baron Cohen's movie, The Dictator and the scene were the nuclear scientist is speaking candidly to the dictator about rocket design and they tyrant responds "lets agree to disagree" then signals to his security apparatus to have him killed.